The Cohen New Works Festival presented by the University Co-op, is a week-long showcase of new work created by UT students held every other Spring in various locations in and around the Winship Drama Building and the University of Texas campus. It is not just an event, but a celebration of a continuously ongoing process–the creation of new work.

11:00am

The official commencement ceremony for the 2013 Cohen New Works Festival presented by the University Co-op! Featuring a keynote address by guest artist Polly Carl, this event is open to the public and will take place at the Texas Union Ballroom.

1:00pm

“The First Steps” follows pairs of actors and dancers as they journey through their own pasts and relive the moments that shaped their lives, all-the-while focusing on the journey taken by each of these performers as they recall what it takes to finally say, and mean, the words: “I’m okay.”

1:00pm

Joey likes the Internet. The Internet likes Joey. Generated from a hearty diet of Facebook, home videos, androids, and the diaries of prehistoric creatures, Suspicious Dinner is the story of a man's mad love affair with the world wide web. Suspicion! Dinner!

1:00pm

“West Texas Beehive”, a play in one act by Alexa Kelly, explores a romantic relationship tested by the rigors of life in a brothel as based on the classic childhood song “I’m Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee”.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

1:00pm

“A Nostalgic Afternoon” is an installation of the largest blanket fort imaginable. Individuals have the opportunity to enter and write their story on the pages of a book. A blog url will be provided with the installation and participants are invited to visit the website the following week and read the compiled stories.

1:00pm

Not Coke or saltine, Art-Vend dispenses donated art from a vending machine. Art-Vend is a project founded by Jason Buchanan and Bich Vu featuring a vending machine that will dispense artwork donated by artists professional and amateur alike. All proceeds go towards The Cohen New Works Festival presented by the University Co-op.

1:00pm

“Bio Light” is an Educational Exhibit featuring costumes that faithfully mimic sea animals in the Great Barrier Reef. Led technology and cutting edge costume materials help create the illusion of luminescence. A video presentation will allow the viewer to see the costumes in action and learn more about the creatures and their environment.

1:00pm

“Good Girl/Bad Girl” investigates how culture, community, race, religion, age and language influence definitions of appropriate and inappropriate dress. Communities addressed are New Mexican women, Mexican women, Native American women, women who participate in sororities, and women who work on ranches and/or define themselves as Cowgirls. Research is presented through interviews and photographs.

1:00pm

“Light Instruments” aims to redefine the way people experience everyday spaces through the manipulation of light. The project consists of two independent systems that will alter everyday spaces, creating unique emotive experiences. One will be installed in the Payne Theatre Lobby and the second at the McCombs-UTC Fly Over Staircase.

1:00pm

This installation will no longer be showcased in its previous locations around the University of Texas campus. Instead, renderings and schematics can be viewed in the North Hall of Goldsmith Hall at the University of Texas. Refer to Festival website for talkback information and join this collaborative team in disucssing their process and methodology. For all project updates and notifications, please refer to the Festival website, smartphone and mobile app, and signs around the information table in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building.

What if that iconic view of the UT Tower was obscured? Would you invest the time to investigate your surrounding in more detail? This team of six architecture students plans on de-emphasizing the recognizable and bring awareness to the obscured. A series of obstructions and frames will be placed throughout the campus in an effort to bring about this mindset.

1:00pm

“Eye Contact” is a performance-based installation expressing the Westernization process of Chinese-American Women in the past 100 years. The installation will include: one scroll, two dolls and Yao Chen.

2:30pm

During the 2013 Spring Break vacation, artists from UT and Chung Ang University will create a new work in Seoul, Korea. This lecture presentation will reveal the final dance theater piece of an intercultural collaboration between performing artists that explores the relationships between civilian Korean women and military men.

2:30pm

July 1937. 15-year-old Betty Klenck receives and transcribes the final transmissions of Amelia Earhart. Villainous company Last Words & Sons & Sons sets out to capitalize on Betty’s lucrative find. Inspired by 1930s radio, this ensemble comedy, based on a true story, asks audiences to consider: what will become of your last words?

4:30pm

This dance/theatre piece exposes and dissolves disability prejudices. Abled and disabled dancers guide the audience from the world of outcasts to a world where difference is celebrated. It is an unsettling but eye-opening journey, leaving the audience cringing, laughing, crying, smiling, and questioning the way we conventionally perceive differently-abled people.

4:30pm

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

4:30pm

Designed for children under the age of two, this piece invites audience members to engage in play alongside the performers as they discover a series of objects. Responding to the audiences’ own sounds and movements, this piece will provide audiences a two-way experience of narrative, movement, sound and image.

4:30pm

What is safety? Can one ever really find true safety? The actors explore the theme of safety versus security by following the lives of citizens in the dystopian Safehouse. In an attempt to feel free, young Oliver pushes the boundaries of his underground, sheltered world.

4:30pm

“The Beauty Play” looks at how a monolithic ideal of beauty impacts the day-to-day life of people within the U.S. from various races and cultures. Using direct quotes and memories from personally conducted interviews, the play asks the audience to question their own definitions of beauty.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

5:30pm

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

6:00pm

Creative Skin provides an inside look at creative processes that choreographers navigate while focusing on the blazing flashes of inspiration, the struggles of insecurity, and the willingness to expose one’s vulnerabilities. Using dance, text, media, and music this project guides the audience through an accumulative performance that exposes a choreographer’s journey.

6:00pm

A play about a hermitic synesthete named Henry who is dealing with the recent loss of his mother by closing himself off from his father and the city until a mysterious girl named Peter enters his cramped Brooklyn apartment and scrambles his perceptions of the world.

7:00pm

“Dead Mall” presents a haunted world of half-forgotten stores and wholly forgotten people. Ghost stories and shadows fill the spaces where Macy’s and Orange Julius used to be. For two teenage girls, a typical Saturday at the mall takes a dark turn. The muzak is on, but who is listening?

8:00pm

“Wild Abandon” is a live intersect of original Blues and Folk Music in a casual concert format with varying styles of Technical Concert Dance. This interdisciplinary performance will wildly abandon all expectations.

8:00pm

“Colossal” is an epic theatrical event. Featuring a twenty-person ensemble, dancing, and a drum corps, its plot centers on a University of Texas football player, struggling to move forward in the wake of a catastrophic spinal injury. A play about love, ability, and extraordinary feats of strength, Colossal is both a celebration and critical examination of our nation’s most popular form of theater.

8:00pm

“PRICELESS SLAVE” uncovers the true story of an antebellum slave-architect and his conflicted relationship with the woman who “borrowed” him to construct a lonely mansion in the wilderness of northern Louisiana. The projects’ aesthetics interweave theater and the visual arts to create a cutting-edge Southern Gothic comedy.

8:00pm

Before the war on drugs took precedence in our border country of Mexico, Ciudad Juarez had a bigger problem. Told through an ensemble of Latina women, The Women of Juarez explores the ways in which the stories of the women of Juarez – the missing and the lost; the murdered and the ones left behind – are honored and told in unconventional and untraditional ways.

8:00pm

“We Are StarStuff” explores time and distance, observation and experimentation, magic, love and what we and the universe are really made of. Combining actual and imagined texts synthesized from our research of real personalities and powerful scientific concepts, creators and audience alike will experiment with the way we use stories and science to experience our world.

8:30pm

“Almost Invincible” is a new musical theater collaboration piece. The concept of the show is a live-action graphic novel musical about a hero and villain in a small American city. Animated video projection will be used to bring this graphic novel to life as scenic elements and comic cell art.

8:30pm

A play about a hermitic synesthete named Henry who is dealing with the recent loss of his mother by closing himself off from his father and the city until a mysterious girl named Peter enters his cramped Brooklyn apartment and scrambles his perceptions of the world.

10:00am

This dance/theatre piece exposes and dissolves disability prejudices. Abled and disabled dancers guide the audience from the world of outcasts to a world where difference is celebrated. It is an unsettling but eye-opening journey, leaving the audience cringing, laughing, crying, smiling, and questioning the way we conventionally perceive differently-abled people.

10:00am

Designed for children under the age of two, this piece invites audience members to engage in play alongside the performers as they discover a series of objects. Responding to the audiences’ own sounds and movements, this piece will provide audiences a two-way experience of narrative, movement, sound and image.

10:00am

“The First Steps” follows pairs of actors and dancers as they journey through their own pasts and relive the moments that shaped their lives, all-the-while focusing on the journey taken by each of these performers as they recall what it takes to finally say, and mean, the words: “I’m okay.”

10:00am

“We Are StarStuff” explores time and distance, observation and experimentation, magic, love and what we and the universe are really made of. Combining actual and imagined texts synthesized from our research of real personalities and powerful scientific concepts, creators and audience alike will experiment with the way we use stories and science to experience our world.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

10:00am

“A Nostalgic Afternoon” is an installation of the largest blanket fort imaginable. Individuals have the opportunity to enter and write their story on the pages of a book. A blog url will be provided with the installation and participants are invited to visit the website the following week and read the compiled stories.

10:00am

Not Coke or saltine, Art-Vend dispenses donated art from a vending machine. Art-Vend is a project founded by Jason Buchanan and Bich Vu featuring a vending machine that will dispense artwork donated by artists professional and amateur alike. All proceeds go towards The Cohen New Works Festival presented by the University Co-op.

10:00am

“Bio Light” is an Educational Exhibit featuring costumes that faithfully mimic sea animals in the Great Barrier Reef. Led technology and cutting edge costume materials help create the illusion of luminescence. A video presentation will allow the viewer to see the costumes in action and learn more about the creatures and their environment.

10:00am

“Good Girl/Bad Girl” investigates how culture, community, race, religion, age and language influence definitions of appropriate and inappropriate dress. Communities addressed are New Mexican women, Mexican women, Native American women, women who participate in sororities, and women who work on ranches and/or define themselves as Cowgirls. Research is presented through interviews and photographs.

10:00am

“Light Instruments” aims to redefine the way people experience everyday spaces through the manipulation of light. The project consists of two independent systems that will alter everyday spaces, creating unique emotive experiences. One will be installed in the Payne Theatre Lobby and the second at the University Co-op Materials Resource Center.

Project Update:

One segment of Light Instruments is installed in the Payne Theatre Lobby and the second is at the University Co-op Materials Resource Center. There will be a talkback at the Resource Center at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26, 2013. Both installations are ongoing.

10:00am

This installation will no longer be showcased in its previous locations around the University of Texas campus. Instead, renderings and schematics can be viewed in the North Hall of Goldsmith Hall at the University of Texas. Refer to Festival website for talkback information and join this collaborative team in disucssing their process and methodology. For all project updates and notifications, please refer to the Festival website, smartphone and mobile app, and signs around the information table in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building.

What if that iconic view of the UT Tower was obscured? Would you invest the time to investigate your surrounding in more detail? This team of six architecture students plans on de-emphasizing the recognizable and bring awareness to the obscured. A series of obstructions and frames will be placed throughout the campus in an effort to bring about this mindset.

10:00am

“Eye Contact” is a performance-based installation expressing the Westernization process of Chinese-American Women in the past 100 years. The installation will include: one scroll, two dolls and Yao Chen.

11:30am

Ish is an auto-biographical solo performance exploring the story of how a young Jewish woman defined her own sense of identity through trauma and history. Ish explores the conscious and subconscious influence of identity we inherit but don't always know what to do with.

11:30am

This session will feature collaborators from projects within the Festival which directly engage representations of disabilities. It will be facilitated by Stephanie Rosen, a doctoral student in English at The University of Texas at Austin.

1:00pm

“Wild Abandon” is a live intersect of original Blues and Folk Music in a casual concert format with varying styles of Technical Concert Dance. This interdisciplinary performance will wildly abandon all expectations.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

1:00pm

“Déjà Vu” is a theatrical spectacle that invites the audience into one of our most personal areas—our memory. This show reexamines how we look at memories by experimenting with the senses to discover how we really remember. Join us for a look into the complicated haze that is memory.

1:00pm

“The Beauty Play” looks at how a monolithic ideal of beauty impacts the day-to-day life of people within the U.S. from various races and cultures. Using direct quotes and memories from personally conducted interviews, the play asks the audience to question their own definitions of beauty.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

1:30pm

How do you see yourself? Believe You Me is an interactive installation which explores the relationship between humans and media through the use of video, live performance and an alien invasion. We invite you to log off, cancel your subscriptions and come as you are.

2:30pm

During the 2013 Spring Break vacation, artists from UT and Chung Ang University will create a new work in Seoul, Korea. This lecture presentation will reveal the final dance theater piece of an intercultural collaboration between performing artists that explores the relationships between civilian Korean women and military men.

2:30pm

How do you see yourself? Believe You Me is an interactive installation which explores the relationship between humans and media through the use of video, live performance and an alien invasion. We invite you to log off, cancel your subscriptions and come as you are.

2:30pm

July 1937. 15-year-old Betty Klenck receives and transcribes the final transmissions of Amelia Earhart. Villainous company Last Words & Sons & Sons sets out to capitalize on Betty’s lucrative find. Inspired by 1930s radio, this ensemble comedy, based on a true story, asks audiences to consider: what will become of your last words?

3:00pm

This event is a talkback session. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

“Light Instruments” aims to redefine the way people experience everyday spaces through the manipulation of light. The project consists of two independent systems that will alter everyday spaces, creating unique emotive experiences. One will be installed in the Payne Theatre Lobby and the second at the University Co-op Materials Resource Center.

Project Update:

One segment of Light Instruments is installed in the Payne Theatre Lobby and the second is at the University Co-op Materials Resource Center. There will be a talkback at the Resource Center at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26, 2013. Both installations are ongoing.

4:00pm

“The Farewell” is an experiential adventure navigating the themes of loss and grief through our memories, multimedia, audience interaction, Viewpoints based movement and honesty. How do we celebrate and honor the loved ones we have lost both individually and as a community?

4:30pm

“Times Two” is a collaborative dance piece that portrays the universal concepts of love and desire through male/male partnering. Along with an original score and spoken personal recollections, this piece will present dance and the arts as integral partners in civic dialogue.

4:30pm

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

4:30pm

“West Texas Beehive”, a play in one act by Alexa Kelly, explores a romantic relationship tested by the rigors of life in a brothel as based on the classic childhood song “I’m Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee”.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

5:30pm

Danseur Drama is a story about Kavin, a man in his late twenties, who is convinced by friends to try ballet to help him get over his ex-boyfriend. Unexpectedly, ballet will ultimately test friendships, define family, and promote healing. The format is a play, but each scene will demonstrate a ballet term, which also represents the underlying theme.

Part 1 of 2.

Staged Reading of Scenes 1 - 3 of Danseur Drama and a short feedback session.

5:30pm

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

7:00pm

Student organizations Dance Action and Classical Reinvention join forces to unify movement, live music, and photography in a guided performance through the Harry Ransom Center. Collaborating choreographers, dancers, and musicians will break the walls of traditional theater to bring their own invention into a haven of preservation and history.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

7:00pm

“Dead Mall” presents a haunted world of half-forgotten stores and wholly forgotten people. Ghost stories and shadows fill the spaces where Macy’s and Orange Julius used to be. For two teenage girls, a typical Saturday at the mall takes a dark turn. The muzak is on, but who is listening?

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

8:00pm

Ish is an auto-biographical solo performance exploring the story of how a young Jewish woman defined her own sense of identity through trauma and history. Ish explores the conscious and subconscious influence of identity we inherit but don't always know what to do with.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

8:00pm

Joey likes the Internet. The Internet likes Joey. Generated from a hearty diet of Facebook, home videos, androids, and the diaries of prehistoric creatures, Suspicious Dinner is the story of a man's mad love affair with the world wide web. Suspicion! Dinner!

8:00pm

Meet LETTER who speaks for SARAH, a student diagnosed with a mental disability, at the University of Blah Blah Blah. Follow LETTER and SARAH to engage in a conversation surrounding how the ADA (Americans with Disabilities) Act, 39 years after its creation, still affects many in the world today.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

8:00pm

“Colossal” is an epic theatrical event. Featuring a twenty-person ensemble, dancing, and a drum corps, its plot centers on a University of Texas football player, struggling to move forward in the wake of a catastrophic spinal injury. A play about love, ability, and extraordinary feats of strength, Colossal is both a celebration and critical examination of our nation’s most popular form of theater.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

8:00pm

“PRICELESS SLAVE” uncovers the true story of an antebellum slave-architect and his conflicted relationship with the woman who “borrowed” him to construct a lonely mansion in the wilderness of northern Louisiana. The projects’ aesthetics interweave theater and the visual arts to create a cutting-edge Southern Gothic comedy.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

8:00pm

Before the war on drugs took precedence in our border country of Mexico, Ciudad Juarez had a bigger problem. Told through an ensemble of Latina women, The Women of Juarez explores the ways in which the stories of the women of Juarez – the missing and the lost; the murdered and the ones left behind – are honored and told in unconventional and untraditional ways.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

8:30pm

“Almost Invincible” is a new musical theater collaboration piece. The concept of the show is a live-action graphic novel musical about a hero and villain in a small American city. Animated video projection will be used to bring this graphic novel to life as scenic elements and comic cell art.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

10:00am

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

10:00am

“West Texas Beehive”, a play in one act by Alexa Kelly, explores a romantic relationship tested by the rigors of life in a brothel as based on the classic childhood song “I’m Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee”.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

10:00am

“A Nostalgic Afternoon” is an installation of the largest blanket fort imaginable. Individuals have the opportunity to enter and write their story on the pages of a book. A blog url will be provided with the installation and participants are invited to visit the website the following week and read the compiled stories.

10:00am

Not Coke or saltine, Art-Vend dispenses donated art from a vending machine. Art-Vend is a project founded by Jason Buchanan and Bich Vu featuring a vending machine that will dispense artwork donated by artists professional and amateur alike. All proceeds go towards The Cohen New Works Festival presented by the University Co-op.

10:00am

“Bio Light” is an Educational Exhibit featuring costumes that faithfully mimic sea animals in the Great Barrier Reef. Led technology and cutting edge costume materials help create the illusion of luminescence. A video presentation will allow the viewer to see the costumes in action and learn more about the creatures and their environment.

10:00am

“Good Girl/Bad Girl” investigates how culture, community, race, religion, age and language influence definitions of appropriate and inappropriate dress. Communities addressed are New Mexican women, Mexican women, Native American women, women who participate in sororities, and women who work on ranches and/or define themselves as Cowgirls. Research is presented through interviews and photographs.

10:00am

“Light Instruments” aims to redefine the way people experience everyday spaces through the manipulation of light. The project consists of two independent systems that will alter everyday spaces, creating unique emotive experiences. One will be installed in the Payne Theatre Lobby and the second at the McCombs-UTC Fly Over Staircase.

10:00am

This installation will no longer be showcased in its previous locations around the University of Texas campus. Instead, renderings and schematics can be viewed in the North Hall of Goldsmith Hall at the University of Texas. Refer to Festival website for talkback information and join this collaborative team in disucssing their process and methodology. For all project updates and notifications, please refer to the Festival website, smartphone and mobile app, and signs around the information table in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building.

What if that iconic view of the UT Tower was obscured? Would you invest the time to investigate your surrounding in more detail? This team of six architecture students plans on de-emphasizing the recognizable and bring awareness to the obscured. A series of obstructions and frames will be placed throughout the campus in an effort to bring about this mindset.

10:00am

“Eye Contact” is a performance-based installation expressing the Westernization process of Chinese-American Women in the past 100 years. The installation will include: one scroll, two dolls and Yao Chen.

11:00am

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

12:00pm

Project Update: Today’s performance of “More Than the Sum” rescheduled for noon tomorrow.

An affiliate production as part of the Cohen New Works Festival, More Than The Sum is an applied theatre piece that bridges creative gaps between educators and artists at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Exeter in England. Drawing on personal history to explore moments of courage, empowerment, confusion, strength and confidence, this ensemble has crafted a performance to reflect and demonstrate the ‘ways of working’ that have developed internationally over the last six months.

In partnership with Perfectly Mixed Up and the University of Texas at Austin Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities, Perfectly Mixed Up is a theatre company that crosses countries, communities, and preconceptions and is comprised of a group of graduate students from the University of Exeter collaborating with young people transitioning out of foster care to create new theatre derived from their own stories.

12:00pm

“Times Two” is a collaborative dance piece that portrays the universal concepts of love and desire through male/male partnering. Along with an original score and spoken personal recollections, this piece will present dance and the arts as integral partners in civic dialogue.

12:00pm

Creative Skin provides an inside look at creative processes that choreographers navigate while focusing on the blazing flashes of inspiration, the struggles of insecurity, and the willingness to expose one’s vulnerabilities. Using dance, text, media, and music this project guides the audience through an accumulative performance that exposes a choreographer’s journey.

12:00pm

How do you see yourself? Believe You Me is an interactive installation which explores the relationship between humans and media through the use of video, live performance and an alien invasion. We invite you to log off, cancel your subscriptions and come as you are.

12:00pm

Ish is an auto-biographical solo performance exploring the story of how a young Jewish woman defined her own sense of identity through trauma and history. Ish explores the conscious and subconscious influence of identity we inherit but don't always know what to do with.

1:00pm

How do you see yourself? Believe You Me is an interactive installation which explores the relationship between humans and media through the use of video, live performance and an alien invasion. We invite you to log off, cancel your subscriptions and come as you are.

1:30pm

“Déjà Vu” is a theatrical spectacle that invites the audience into one of our most personal areas—our memory. This show reexamines how we look at memories by experimenting with the senses to discover how we really remember. Join us for a look into the complicated haze that is memory.

1:30pm

Meet LETTER who speaks for SARAH, a student diagnosed with a mental disability, at the University of Blah Blah Blah. Follow LETTER and SARAH to engage in a conversation surrounding how the ADA (Americans with Disabilities) Act, 39 years after its creation, still affects many in the world today.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

3:00pm

“Wild Abandon” is a live intersect of original Blues and Folk Music in a casual concert format with varying styles of Technical Concert Dance. This interdisciplinary performance will wildly abandon all expectations.

3:00pm

This session will address the value and implications of information technology (IT) in arts organizations of all sizes and include an application of this knowledge to attendees’ projects and organizations.

The Festival places emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, exploring innovative forms, content, and methodology of work. This session will address the value and implications of information technology (IT) in arts organizations of all sizes.

Tech Talk features a panel of representatives from local arts organizations and is hosted by Festival Executive Committee members Taylor McCaslin (Information Technology Manager) and Victoria Goss (Applications Chair & Technical Writer).

The goal of Tech Talk is to advocate the innovative use of technology in arts organizations to promote missions, offer material in new and different ways, and to grow, diversify and engage audiences.

Applications Committee Chair and Technical Writer, The Cohen New Works Festival

Victoria Goss (Applications Chair & Technical Writer) is a third year at the University of Texas at Austin focusing in arts administration and management. She is also pursuing a Business Foundations Certificate through the McCombs School of Business and a certificate in Social Entrepreneurship and Non-Profits with the Bridging Disciplines Program. Victoria has worked eight shows; stage managing five, for the Department of Theater and Dance... Read More →

Ellie McKay is the Associate Education Director at ZACH Theatre creating program content, mentoring up-an-coming teaching artists, and providing professional development for local classroom teachers. She spent six years with Seattle Children's Theatre in various positions including Education Program Manager, Teaching Artist and Literary Manager. In 2012, Ellie co-founded Austin Theatre Teaching Artists Collective, a group committed to... Read More →

Robert Matney is the Director of Technology for Hidden Room Theatre, Board Trustee for Austin Shakespeare, a company member for Breaking String Theater, an actor, director, and a web technologist. Most recently, Robert played Topflyte in Invisible, Inc. and Humphrey Rose Rage (both for Hidden Room’), Piero in Big Love for Shrewd Productions, the title role in Uncle Vanya for Breaking String Theater, and Pompey in Measure For Measure... Read More →

Cassidy C Browning (Engaging Research Subcommittee Chair) is an activist theatre educator, practitioner, and scholar. Browning began the PhD in Performance as Public Practice in 2009 and is currently serving as the Graduate Student Representative on the Season Selection Committee and the Focus Group Representative-Elect for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education... Read More →

3:00pm

What dinosaurs are chasing you? “Third Street” will be a staged reading of a full-length play, developed with an ensemble, about Shane, a strange and awkward kid who escapes into fantasies of knighthood, and Otis, the bully pursued by imaginary dinosaurs. They live on Third Street, and play in dirty alleys.

4:00pm

This event is a talkback session. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

“A Nostalgic Afternoon” is an installation of the largest blanket fort imaginable. Individuals have the opportunity to enter and write their story on the pages of a book. A blog url will be provided with the installation and participants are invited to visit the website the following week and read the compiled stories.

4:00pm

“The Farewell” is an experiential adventure navigating the themes of loss and grief through our memories, multimedia, audience interaction, Viewpoints based movement and honesty. How do we celebrate and honor the loved ones we have lost both individually and as a community?

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

5:00pm

“The First Steps” follows pairs of actors and dancers as they journey through their own pasts and relive the moments that shaped their lives, all-the-while focusing on the journey taken by each of these performers as they recall what it takes to finally say, and mean, the words: “I’m okay.”

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

5:00pm

“The Beauty Play” looks at how a monolithic ideal of beauty impacts the day-to-day life of people within the U.S. from various races and cultures. Using direct quotes and memories from personally conducted interviews, the play asks the audience to question their own definitions of beauty.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

5:30pm

This installation will no longer be showcased in its previous locations around the University of Texas campus. Instead, renderings and schematics can be viewed in the North Hall of Goldsmith Hall at the University of Texas. Refer to Festival website for talkback information and join this collaborative team in disucssing their process and methodology. For all project updates and notifications, please refer to the Festival website, smartphone and mobile app, and signs around the information table in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building.

This event is a talkback session. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

What if that iconic view of the UT Tower was obscured? Would you invest the time to investigate your surrounding in more detail? This team of six architecture students plans on de-emphasizing the recognizable and bring awareness to the obscured. A series of obstructions and frames will be placed throughout the campus in an effort to bring about this mindset.

5:30pm

War Games is a play for family audiences that explores the story of Jonah, a young boy whose father is deployed in Afghanistan. Jonah and his family work to navigate the harsh emotional realities of war and confront the scariest question of all.

6:30pm

This dance/theatre piece exposes and dissolves disability prejudices. Abled and disabled dancers guide the audience from the world of outcasts to a world where difference is celebrated. It is an unsettling but eye-opening journey, leaving the audience cringing, laughing, crying, smiling, and questioning the way we conventionally perceive differently-abled people.

6:30pm

A play about a hermitic synesthete named Henry who is dealing with the recent loss of his mother by closing himself off from his father and the city until a mysterious girl named Peter enters his cramped Brooklyn apartment and scrambles his perceptions of the world.

8:30pm

Danseur Drama is a story about Kavin, a man in his late twenties, who is convinced by friends to try ballet to help him get over his ex-boyfriend. Unexpectedly, ballet will ultimately test friendships, define family, and promote healing. The format is a play, but each scene will demonstrate a ballet term, which also represents the underlying theme.

Part 2 of 2.

Staged Reading of Scenes 4 - 7 of Danseur Drama and a short feedback session.

8:30pm

“Almost Invincible” is a new musical theater collaboration piece. The concept of the show is a live-action graphic novel musical about a hero and villain in a small American city. Animated video projection will be used to bring this graphic novel to life as scenic elements and comic cell art.

8:30pm

“Colossal” is an epic theatrical event. Featuring a twenty-person ensemble, dancing, and a drum corps, its plot centers on a University of Texas football player, struggling to move forward in the wake of a catastrophic spinal injury. A play about love, ability, and extraordinary feats of strength, Colossal is both a celebration and critical examination of our nation’s most popular form of theater.

8:30pm

“Dead Mall” presents a haunted world of half-forgotten stores and wholly forgotten people. Ghost stories and shadows fill the spaces where Macy’s and Orange Julius used to be. For two teenage girls, a typical Saturday at the mall takes a dark turn. The muzak is on, but who is listening?

8:30pm

“PRICELESS SLAVE” uncovers the true story of an antebellum slave-architect and his conflicted relationship with the woman who “borrowed” him to construct a lonely mansion in the wilderness of northern Louisiana. The projects’ aesthetics interweave theater and the visual arts to create a cutting-edge Southern Gothic comedy.

8:30pm

Before the war on drugs took precedence in our border country of Mexico, Ciudad Juarez had a bigger problem. Told through an ensemble of Latina women, The Women of Juarez explores the ways in which the stories of the women of Juarez – the missing and the lost; the murdered and the ones left behind – are honored and told in unconventional and untraditional ways.

8:30pm

“We Are StarStuff” explores time and distance, observation and experimentation, magic, love and what we and the universe are really made of. Combining actual and imagined texts synthesized from our research of real personalities and powerful scientific concepts, creators and audience alike will experiment with the way we use stories and science to experience our world.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

9:30pm

“Times Two” is a collaborative dance piece that portrays the universal concepts of love and desire through male/male partnering. Along with an original score and spoken personal recollections, this piece will present dance and the arts as integral partners in civic dialogue.

9:30pm

July 1937. 15-year-old Betty Klenck receives and transcribes the final transmissions of Amelia Earhart. Villainous company Last Words & Sons & Sons sets out to capitalize on Betty’s lucrative find. Inspired by 1930s radio, this ensemble comedy, based on a true story, asks audiences to consider: what will become of your last words?

10:00pm

“We Are StarStuff” explores time and distance, observation and experimentation, magic, love and what we and the universe are really made of. Combining actual and imagined texts synthesized from our research of real personalities and powerful scientific concepts, creators and audience alike will experiment with the way we use stories and science to experience our world.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

10:00am

Designed for children under the age of two, this piece invites audience members to engage in play alongside the performers as they discover a series of objects. Responding to the audiences’ own sounds and movements, this piece will provide audiences a two-way experience of narrative, movement, sound and image.

10:00am

“Déjà Vu” is a theatrical spectacle that invites the audience into one of our most personal areas—our memory. This show reexamines how we look at memories by experimenting with the senses to discover how we really remember. Join us for a look into the complicated haze that is memory.

10:00am

“West Texas Beehive”, a play in one act by Alexa Kelly, explores a romantic relationship tested by the rigors of life in a brothel as based on the classic childhood song “I’m Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee”.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

10:00am

“A Nostalgic Afternoon” is an installation of the largest blanket fort imaginable. Individuals have the opportunity to enter and write their story on the pages of a book. A blog url will be provided with the installation and participants are invited to visit the website the following week and read the compiled stories.

10:00am

Not Coke or saltine, Art-Vend dispenses donated art from a vending machine. Art-Vend is a project founded by Jason Buchanan and Bich Vu featuring a vending machine that will dispense artwork donated by artists professional and amateur alike. All proceeds go towards The Cohen New Works Festival presented by the University Co-op.

10:00am

“Bio Light” is an Educational Exhibit featuring costumes that faithfully mimic sea animals in the Great Barrier Reef. Led technology and cutting edge costume materials help create the illusion of luminescence. A video presentation will allow the viewer to see the costumes in action and learn more about the creatures and their environment.

10:00am

“Good Girl/Bad Girl” investigates how culture, community, race, religion, age and language influence definitions of appropriate and inappropriate dress. Communities addressed are New Mexican women, Mexican women, Native American women, women who participate in sororities, and women who work on ranches and/or define themselves as Cowgirls. Research is presented through interviews and photographs.

10:00am

“Light Instruments” aims to redefine the way people experience everyday spaces through the manipulation of light. The project consists of two independent systems that will alter everyday spaces, creating unique emotive experiences. One will be installed in the Payne Theatre Lobby and the second at the McCombs-UTC Fly Over Staircase.

10:00am

This installation will no longer be showcased in its previous locations around the University of Texas campus. Instead, renderings and schematics can be viewed in the North Hall of Goldsmith Hall at the University of Texas. Refer to Festival website for talkback information and join this collaborative team in disucssing their process and methodology. For all project updates and notifications, please refer to the Festival website, smartphone and mobile app, and signs around the information table in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building.

What if that iconic view of the UT Tower was obscured? Would you invest the time to investigate your surrounding in more detail? This team of six architecture students plans on de-emphasizing the recognizable and bring awareness to the obscured. A series of obstructions and frames will be placed throughout the campus in an effort to bring about this mindset.

10:00am

“Eye Contact” is a performance-based installation expressing the Westernization process of Chinese-American Women in the past 100 years. The installation will include: one scroll, two dolls and Yao Chen.

11:30am

This event is a talkback session. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

“Bio Light” is an Educational Exhibit featuring costumes that faithfully mimic sea animals in the Great Barrier Reef. Led technology and cutting edge costume materials help create the illusion of luminescence. A video presentation will allow the viewer to see the costumes in action and learn more about the creatures and their environment.

11:30am

July 1937. 15-year-old Betty Klenck receives and transcribes the final transmissions of Amelia Earhart. Villainous company Last Words & Sons & Sons sets out to capitalize on Betty’s lucrative find. Inspired by 1930s radio, this ensemble comedy, based on a true story, asks audiences to consider: what will become of your last words?

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

12:00pm

An affiliate production as part of the Cohen New Works Festival, More Than The Sum is an applied theatre piece that bridges creative gaps between educators and artists at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Exeter in England. Drawing on personal history to explore moments of courage, empowerment, confusion, strength and confidence, this ensemble has crafted a performance to reflect and demonstrate the ‘ways of working’ that have developed internationally over the last six months.

In partnership with Perfectly Mixed Up and the University of Texas at Austin Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities, Perfectly Mixed Up is a theatre company that crosses countries, communities, and preconceptions and is comprised of a group of graduate students from the University of Exeter collaborating with young people transitioning out of foster care to create new theatre derived from their own stories.

Ticket Update: "More Than the Sum" patrons can use reserved tickets from yesterdays canceled performance at this preformance.

12:00pm

During the 2013 Spring Break vacation, artists from UT and Chung Ang University will create a new work in Seoul, Korea. This lecture presentation will reveal the final dance theater piece of an intercultural collaboration between performing artists that explores the relationships between civilian Korean women and military men.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

12:30pm

People are taken from their homes. They wear pajamas. Suits. Who knows. They are told to seat on the floor; Do not move. Do not speak. Do not clap. A Work for local dancers and video from far away. A universe of oppression in a polygon.

12:30pm

This event is a talkback session. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

“Good Girl/Bad Girl” investigates how culture, community, race, religion, age and language influence definitions of appropriate and inappropriate dress. Communities addressed are New Mexican women, Mexican women, Native American women, women who participate in sororities, and women who work on ranches and/or define themselves as Cowgirls. Research is presented through interviews and photographs.

1:00pm

Joey likes the Internet. The Internet likes Joey. Generated from a hearty diet of Facebook, home videos, androids, and the diaries of prehistoric creatures, Suspicious Dinner is the story of a man's mad love affair with the world wide web. Suspicion! Dinner!

1:30pm

Project Update: There will be a second preformance of More Than The Sum at 12:00pm today

An affiliate production as part of the Cohen New Works Festival, More Than The Sum is an applied theatre piece that bridges creative gaps between educators and artists at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Exeter in England. Drawing on personal history to explore moments of courage, empowerment, confusion, strength and confidence, this ensemble has crafted a performance to reflect and demonstrate the ‘ways of working’ that have developed internationally over the last six months.

In partnership with Perfectly Mixed Up and the University of Texas at Austin Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities, Perfectly Mixed Up is a theatre company that crosses countries, communities, and preconceptions and is comprised of a group of graduate students from the University of Exeter collaborating with young people transitioning out of foster care to create new theatre derived from their own stories.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

1:30pm

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

Project Update: There will be two added performances of "Slip River" tomorrow morning (Friday, March 29) at 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Walk-up tickets only. Run time is approximately 45 minutes.

2:00pm

People are taken from their homes. They wear pajamas. Suits. Who knows. They are told to seat on the floor; Do not move. Do not speak. Do not clap. A Work for local dancers and video from far away. A universe of oppression in a polygon.

2:30pm

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

Project Update: There will be two added performances of "Slip River" tomorrow morning (Friday, March 29) at 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Walk-up tickets only. Run time is approximately 45 minutes.

2:30pm

“The Beauty Play” looks at how a monolithic ideal of beauty impacts the day-to-day life of people within the U.S. from various races and cultures. Using direct quotes and memories from personally conducted interviews, the play asks the audience to question their own definitions of beauty.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

Cassidy C Browning (Engaging Research Subcommittee Chair) is an activist theatre educator, practitioner, and scholar. Browning began the PhD in Performance as Public Practice in 2009 and is currently serving as the Graduate Student Representative on the Season Selection Committee and the Focus Group Representative-Elect for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education... Read More →

Sidney Monroe (Assistant Producer) is a MFA candidate in the Drama and Theatre for Youth & Communities program. In addition to being the student chair of The Cohen New Works Festival, Sidney is an active member of Voices Against Violence and Drama For Schools. Before attending The University of Texas at Austin, Sidney served as the Theatre Department Chair at Episcopal Collegiate School in Little Rock, AR where he wrote curriculum for... Read More →

Ken Cerniglia is a professional dramaturg based in New York City whose credits span plays, musicals, operas, symphonies, and films. His work is currently represented on Broadway by the 2012 Tony-winning productions of Disney’s NEWSIES and PETER AND THE STARCATCHER. Other stage credits for Disney include ALADDIN, THE LITTLE MERMAID, TARZAN, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, and twenty musicals for young performers. With the Seattle-based Fisher Ensemble... Read More →

Madge Darlington, M.F.A., is a founder and Co-Producing Artistic Director for Rude Mechs of Austin, TX. In the collaborative spirit of the Rudes, Madge has worked on almost every show the Rudes have made in some form or fashion including directing, acting, production managing, technical directing, stage managing, and designing. Most recently she was a key artist on the Rudes' Now Now Oh Now and The Method Gun. With Shawn Sides, she... Read More →

Dayna Hanson is a Seattle-based choreographer, dance theater director and filmmaker. Co-founder of dance theater company 33 Fainting Spells, Dayna’s work has been presented nationally and internationally since the early 1990s, including several residencies at Dance Umbrella Austin. Her dance films have screened at more than 50 festivals worldwide, including New York Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival. Dayna’s 2010... Read More →

Sherry Kramer couldn’t be happier to be back at The Cohen New Works Festival. She hasn’t missed one since the first in 2003. When she is not participating in the New Works Festival, she writes plays and teaches. Her newest plays—HOW WATER BEHAVES and THE BAY OF FUNDY--are part of her ongoing conversation about the American dream and the shape of charity in the modern world. She’s just completed THE DREAM HOUSE, a... Read More →

Sarah Richardson is a founding Co-Producing Artistic Director for Rude Mechs. She has performed in 8 of the company’s critically acclaimed productions and directed Kirk Lynn’s Lust Supper (“Outstanding Director,” Austin Critics’ Table), Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry and the critically acclaimed How Late It Was, How Late which also toured to the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. She also directed Shakespeare’s R&J... Read More →

My stone and wood sculptures are the result of repetitive and derivative interpretations of the ancient Asiatic Bi and Cong. These small jade ritual objects referencing the sky and earth have been associated with Shaman dating from 5,000 BC. In my series of physical translations, I seek to express the connection these symbols have had throughout societies from antiquity to the present.

4:00pm

“The Farewell” is an experiential adventure navigating the themes of loss and grief through our memories, multimedia, audience interaction, Viewpoints based movement and honesty. How do we celebrate and honor the loved ones we have lost both individually and as a community?

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

5:30pm

This event is a talkback session. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

Not Coke or saltine, Art-Vend dispenses donated art from a vending machine. Art-Vend is a project founded by Jason Buchanan and Bich Vu featuring a vending machine that will dispense artwork donated by artists professional and amateur alike. All proceeds go towards The Cohen New Works Festival presented by the University Co-op.

5:30pm

This event is a Performance Showing (Pre-recorded) & Discussion (designed for adults).

Designed for children under the age of two, this piece invites audience members to engage in play alongside the performers as they discover a series of objects. Responding to the audiences’ own sounds and movements, this piece will provide audiences a two-way experience of narrative, movement, sound and image.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

5:30pm

Before the war on drugs took precedence in our border country of Mexico, Ciudad Juarez had a bigger problem. Told through an ensemble of Latina women, The Women of Juarez explores the ways in which the stories of the women of Juarez – the missing and the lost; the murdered and the ones left behind – are honored and told in unconventional and untraditional ways.

5:30pm

What dinosaurs are chasing you? “Third Street” will be a staged reading of a full-length play, developed with an ensemble, about Shane, a strange and awkward kid who escapes into fantasies of knighthood, and Otis, the bully pursued by imaginary dinosaurs. They live on Third Street, and play in dirty alleys.

6:30pm

This dance/theatre piece exposes and dissolves disability prejudices. Abled and disabled dancers guide the audience from the world of outcasts to a world where difference is celebrated. It is an unsettling but eye-opening journey, leaving the audience cringing, laughing, crying, smiling, and questioning the way we conventionally perceive differently-abled people.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

6:30pm

This session will combine performances by local practitioners with discussion about Hip Hop aesthetics, performance, and practice. It will be facilitated by Executive Committee member Cassidy C Browning.

Cassidy C Browning (Engaging Research Subcommittee Chair) is an activist theatre educator, practitioner, and scholar. Browning began the PhD in Performance as Public Practice in 2009 and is currently serving as the Graduate Student Representative on the Season Selection Committee and the Focus Group Representative-Elect for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education... Read More →

Ebony Stewart: With lips from any ghetto you choose and words spoken to save her own life, this Gully Princess by the name of Ebony Stewart, is the only adult female Three Time Slam Champion (2007, 2009, 2011) in Austin, TX. She has shared stages with Amiri Baraka, voted Slam Artist of the Year by National Poetry Awards, nominated top eight of Austin's MUST SEE, was one of the leading members of the Austin Neo-Soul slam team in 2010, ranking... Read More →

Mykal Monroe is an actress/writer/producer completing her final year in the MFA program in acting at The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to her tenure in grad school, Monroe toured internationally with six time Grammy-nominated recording artist Janelle Monáe as a dancer and creative collaborator. Monroe plans to move to New York City in the summer upon graduation to further pursue her career theatre, film, and... Read More →

Sadé M. Jones is currently a psychology M.A. candidate at The University of Texas at Austin. A native of Brooklyn, NY, she received most of her training in different NYC dance classes including Alvin Ailey and Broadway Dance Center. As an undergraduate of William Smith College, she minored in Dance and Social Justice. | | During this time, she performed works of Afro-Caribbean dancer and choreographer Chris Walker and... Read More →

Zell Miller III: Artistic Director of The Cipher and Co-Artistic Director of UpRise! Productions Zell Milller III has won numerous awards for his work as an interdisciplinary theatre artist, poet, and youth counselor, teacher, and mentor. Miller directed the critically acclaimed production of Ntozake Shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf (UpRise! Productions... Read More →

7:00pm

“Dead Mall” presents a haunted world of half-forgotten stores and wholly forgotten people. Ghost stories and shadows fill the spaces where Macy’s and Orange Julius used to be. For two teenage girls, a typical Saturday at the mall takes a dark turn. The muzak is on, but who is listening?

8:00pm

“Colossal” is an epic theatrical event. Featuring a twenty-person ensemble, dancing, and a drum corps, its plot centers on a University of Texas football player, struggling to move forward in the wake of a catastrophic spinal injury. A play about love, ability, and extraordinary feats of strength, Colossal is both a celebration and critical examination of our nation’s most popular form of theater.

8:00pm

Meet LETTER who speaks for SARAH, a student diagnosed with a mental disability, at the University of Blah Blah Blah. Follow LETTER and SARAH to engage in a conversation surrounding how the ADA (Americans with Disabilities) Act, 39 years after its creation, still affects many in the world today.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

8:00pm

“PRICELESS SLAVE” uncovers the true story of an antebellum slave-architect and his conflicted relationship with the woman who “borrowed” him to construct a lonely mansion in the wilderness of northern Louisiana. The projects’ aesthetics interweave theater and the visual arts to create a cutting-edge Southern Gothic comedy.

8:30pm

“Almost Invincible” is a new musical theater collaboration piece. The concept of the show is a live-action graphic novel musical about a hero and villain in a small American city. Animated video projection will be used to bring this graphic novel to life as scenic elements and comic cell art.

8:30pm

“Déjà Vu” is a theatrical spectacle that invites the audience into one of our most personal areas—our memory. This show reexamines how we look at memories by experimenting with the senses to discover how we really remember. Join us for a look into the complicated haze that is memory.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

8:30pm

A play about a hermitic synesthete named Henry who is dealing with the recent loss of his mother by closing himself off from his father and the city until a mysterious girl named Peter enters his cramped Brooklyn apartment and scrambles his perceptions of the world.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

9:00am

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

10:00am

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

10:00am

Ish is an auto-biographical solo performance exploring the story of how a young Jewish woman defined her own sense of identity through trauma and history. Ish explores the conscious and subconscious influence of identity we inherit but don't always know what to do with.

10:00am

Designed for children under the age of two, this piece invites audience members to engage in play alongside the performers as they discover a series of objects. Responding to the audiences’ own sounds and movements, this piece will provide audiences a two-way experience of narrative, movement, sound and image.

10:00am

Joey likes the Internet. The Internet likes Joey. Generated from a hearty diet of Facebook, home videos, androids, and the diaries of prehistoric creatures, Suspicious Dinner is the story of a man's mad love affair with the world wide web. Suspicion! Dinner!

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

10:00am

Meet LETTER who speaks for SARAH, a student diagnosed with a mental disability, at the University of Blah Blah Blah. Follow LETTER and SARAH to engage in a conversation surrounding how the ADA (Americans with Disabilities) Act, 39 years after its creation, still affects many in the world today.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

10:00am

“A Nostalgic Afternoon” is an installation of the largest blanket fort imaginable. Individuals have the opportunity to enter and write their story on the pages of a book. A blog url will be provided with the installation and participants are invited to visit the website the following week and read the compiled stories.

10:00am

Not Coke or saltine, Art-Vend dispenses donated art from a vending machine. Art-Vend is a project founded by Jason Buchanan and Bich Vu featuring a vending machine that will dispense artwork donated by artists professional and amateur alike. All proceeds go towards The Cohen New Works Festival presented by the University Co-op.

10:00am

“Bio Light” is an Educational Exhibit featuring costumes that faithfully mimic sea animals in the Great Barrier Reef. Led technology and cutting edge costume materials help create the illusion of luminescence. A video presentation will allow the viewer to see the costumes in action and learn more about the creatures and their environment.

10:00am

“Good Girl/Bad Girl” investigates how culture, community, race, religion, age and language influence definitions of appropriate and inappropriate dress. Communities addressed are New Mexican women, Mexican women, Native American women, women who participate in sororities, and women who work on ranches and/or define themselves as Cowgirls. Research is presented through interviews and photographs.

10:00am

“Light Instruments” aims to redefine the way people experience everyday spaces through the manipulation of light. The project consists of two independent systems that will alter everyday spaces, creating unique emotive experiences. One will be installed in the Payne Theatre Lobby and the second at the McCombs-UTC Fly Over Staircase.

10:00am

This installation will no longer be showcased in its previous locations around the University of Texas campus. Instead, renderings and schematics can be viewed in the North Hall of Goldsmith Hall at the University of Texas. Refer to Festival website for talkback information and join this collaborative team in disucssing their process and methodology. For all project updates and notifications, please refer to the Festival website, smartphone and mobile app, and signs around the information table in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building.

What if that iconic view of the UT Tower was obscured? Would you invest the time to investigate your surrounding in more detail? This team of six architecture students plans on de-emphasizing the recognizable and bring awareness to the obscured. A series of obstructions and frames will be placed throughout the campus in an effort to bring about this mindset.

10:00am

“Eye Contact” is a performance-based installation expressing the Westernization process of Chinese-American Women in the past 100 years. The installation will include: one scroll, two dolls and Yao Chen.

11:30am

The Exeter Project is a cultural exchange between UT Austin and the University of Exeter in which we explore the possibilities for devising new work and collaborating across the Atlantic!

In partnership with Perfectly Mixed Up and the University of Texas at Austin Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities, Perfectly Mixed Up is a theatre company that crosses countries, communities, and preconceptions and is comprised of a group of graduate students from the University of Exeter collaborating with young people transitioning out of foster care to create new theatre derived from their own stories.

12:30pm

People are taken from their homes. They wear pajamas. Suits. Who knows. They are told to seat on the floor; Do not move. Do not speak. Do not clap. A Work for local dancers and video from far away. A universe of oppression in a polygon.

12:30pm

“The First Steps” follows pairs of actors and dancers as they journey through their own pasts and relive the moments that shaped their lives, all-the-while focusing on the journey taken by each of these performers as they recall what it takes to finally say, and mean, the words: “I’m okay.”

12:30pm

July 1937. 15-year-old Betty Klenck receives and transcribes the final transmissions of Amelia Earhart. Villainous company Last Words & Sons & Sons sets out to capitalize on Betty’s lucrative find. Inspired by 1930s radio, this ensemble comedy, based on a true story, asks audiences to consider: what will become of your last words?

2:00pm

People are taken from their homes. They wear pajamas. Suits. Who knows. They are told to seat on the floor; Do not move. Do not speak. Do not clap. A Work for local dancers and video from far away. A universe of oppression in a polygon.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

2:00pm

Creative Skin provides an inside look at creative processes that choreographers navigate while focusing on the blazing flashes of inspiration, the struggles of insecurity, and the willingness to expose one’s vulnerabilities. Using dance, text, media, and music this project guides the audience through an accumulative performance that exposes a choreographer’s journey.

2:00pm

“Wild Abandon” is a live intersect of original Blues and Folk Music in a casual concert format with varying styles of Technical Concert Dance. This interdisciplinary performance will wildly abandon all expectations.

2:30pm

This event is a talkback session. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

“Eye Contact” is a performance-based installation expressing the Westernization process of Chinese-American Women in the past 100 years. The installation will include: one scroll, two dolls and Yao Chen.

3:00pm

“West Texas Beehive”, a play in one act by Alexa Kelly, explores a romantic relationship tested by the rigors of life in a brothel as based on the classic childhood song “I’m Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee”.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

3:30pm

What dinosaurs are chasing you? “Third Street” will be a staged reading of a full-length play, developed with an ensemble, about Shane, a strange and awkward kid who escapes into fantasies of knighthood, and Otis, the bully pursued by imaginary dinosaurs. They live on Third Street, and play in dirty alleys.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

4:00pm

During the 2013 Spring Break vacation, artists from UT and Chung Ang University will create a new work in Seoul, Korea. This lecture presentation will reveal the final dance theater piece of an intercultural collaboration between performing artists that explores the relationships between civilian Korean women and military men.

4:00pm

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

5:00pm

“Times Two” is a collaborative dance piece that portrays the universal concepts of love and desire through male/male partnering. Along with an original score and spoken personal recollections, this piece will present dance and the arts as integral partners in civic dialogue.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

5:00pm

What is safety? Can one ever really find true safety? The actors explore the theme of safety versus security by following the lives of citizens in the dystopian Safehouse. In an attempt to feel free, young Oliver pushes the boundaries of his underground, sheltered world.

5:00pm

A confluence of Huck Finn narrative and pop music idolatry, “Slip River” follows a runaway orphan on his quest for freedom in a mythical land of milk, honey, and Beyonce. Incorporating dream-like soundscapes and installation, interactive dance and text, "Slip River" travels audiences through the underbelly of UT’s Payne Theater, where peril– or possibility– are just around the river’s bend.

Following this performance there will be a talkback session held in the venue. Talkbacks are brief discussions about the projects designed to gather feedback and provide a forum for engagement with the work.

6:00pm

“The Farewell” is an experiential adventure navigating the themes of loss and grief through our memories, multimedia, audience interaction, Viewpoints based movement and honesty. How do we celebrate and honor the loved ones we have lost both individually and as a community?

6:00pm

“PRICELESS SLAVE” uncovers the true story of an antebellum slave-architect and his conflicted relationship with the woman who “borrowed” him to construct a lonely mansion in the wilderness of northern Louisiana. The projects’ aesthetics interweave theater and the visual arts to create a cutting-edge Southern Gothic comedy.

6:30pm

What dinosaurs are chasing you? “Third Street” will be a staged reading of a full-length play, developed with an ensemble, about Shane, a strange and awkward kid who escapes into fantasies of knighthood, and Otis, the bully pursued by imaginary dinosaurs. They live on Third Street, and play in dirty alleys.

6:30pm

“We Are StarStuff” explores time and distance, observation and experimentation, magic, love and what we and the universe are really made of. Combining actual and imagined texts synthesized from our research of real personalities and powerful scientific concepts, creators and audience alike will experiment with the way we use stories and science to experience our world.

Notice: If you are unable to use stairs, please check in at WIN 1.114 before the event.

7:00pm

Student organizations Dance Action and Classical Reinvention join forces to unify movement, live music, and photography in a guided performance through the Harry Ransom Center. Collaborating choreographers, dancers, and musicians will break the walls of traditional theater to bring their own invention into a haven of preservation and history.

8:00pm

As the Festival comes to an end, celebrate the weeks triumphs with Amy's "New Works" flavored ice cream and a few closing words from guest artist Sherry Kramer. This event is opening to the public and will take place in the F. Loren Winship Drama Building Atrium.